Dialing It Up: Coral, Denim and Discarded Fishing Nets Are Reshaping the Face of Watchmaking

While a subtle display of individuality used to entail highly complicated or diamond-paved dials (I believe the street slang for this is “bust-down”), recent off-kilter novelties have been brandishing unheard-of materials on their faces.

If you’re ready to look beyond traditional metal dials, these extraordinary visages prove there’s still plenty of room for surprise in modern dial-making.

Arsène Lippens Artigiano

Arsène Lippens collaborates with Italian textile artisans from Lake Como to create stabilized dials made of genuine denim (the Como model) and cotton-bamboo blends (the Portofino and Chianti models). A multi-layer resin and deionization process keeps the fabric from fraying or reacting to static while maintaining its raw texture. These eye-catching beauties encapsulate original innovation within a 37.5mm case. Although current models have sold out, we expect Arsène Lippens to launch new references around the same CHF 1,095 price point.

Oris × Bracenet Aquis Date

Few watches wear their environmental message as literally as the Oris × Bracenet, created in partnership with German conservation company Bracenet. Introduced in 2023, every dial is cut from recycled ghost fishing nets recovered from the ocean. The melted plastic creates swirling marbled patterns that ensure no two dials are alike, while drawing attention to the millions of tons of abandoned fishing gear polluting marine ecosystems. Available in 36.5mm and 43.5mm versions, the latest models retail around CHF 2,350, proving sustainability needn’t come at haute horlogerie prices.

Hermès Arceau Rocabar de rire

Hermès has long been the master of métiers d’art, but the Arceau Rocabar de rire, unveiled at Watches and Wonders 2025, might be its most playful expression yet. Limited to just 12 pieces, its 41mm white gold case frames a dial featuring horsehair marquetry, which serves as the backdrop for a hand-engraved and painted gold applique that recreates Dimitri Rybaltchenko’s mischievous horse painting from Hermès’s Rocabar de rire silk scarf. Press the pusher at nine o’clock, and the horse cheekily sticks out its tongue thanks to an animated mechanism built on top of Hermès’s in-house H1837 automatic movement. It’s an extraordinary showcase of craftsmanship that carries a price tag of CHF 159,000.

Venezianico Nereide Corallo

The sea has always been central to Venice’s identity, and the Venezianico Nereide Corallo turns that heritage into something you can wear. Introduced in 2025, its dial is painstakingly assembled from genuine fragments of red Mediterranean coral using a mosaic technique, with each piece individually selected, waterjet-cut, and hand-polished. The result is a richly textured dial that is unique to every watch. It is housed in a 42mm steel dive case, and powered by the dependable Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement to which Venezianico has added its own galvanized, skeletonized, and intricately finished rotor. This limited edition of 500 pieces starts at CHF 1,295.